Downloads of the government's Internet filtering software have hit six figures, according to the Communications Minister — with the Coalition now turning to a schoolboy for help in improving the software.
Speaking today at an Australian Telecommunications User Group meeting in Sydney, Communications Minister Helen Coonan said that the filtering software had been downloaded over 100,000 times in the first week and a half after its release.
The filter, issued to individual homes, schools and libraries as part of the government's AU$189 million NetAlert — Protecting Australian Families Online program was announced in August and is intended to help parents block children's access to "offensive" or "unwelcome" material on the Internet.
"It's clearly meeting a need but we need to keep an eye on it ... it's not a silver bullet," Coonan said.
"It seems to be working just the way we planned," she said.
Within weeks of the government's filtering-software launch in late August, one of the software packages available had been cracked by a Melbourne schoolboy.
Today, Coonan hinted that 16-year-old Tom Wood, who was able to crack the filter within half an hour, has been helping the government finetune the software package.
"We've been working with the young person concerned, in the lab ... and we're now working on some of those issues with Microsoft," she said.
Around AU$85 million of funding will be spent on the software filtering part of the NetAlert program. The scheme will also see publicity campaigns stepped up, including a AU$22 million awareness scheme to "inform parents and carers of children about online safety issues and provide information about where they can go to receive support and assistance", and 10 new ACMA Internet safety officers who will visit schools to talk about online dangers.
